AngQBt C, 1868. J 



JODBNAL OP HORTICDLTURB AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



W 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



RIPENING THE WOOD OF FRUIT TREES. 



) CCORDING to the maxims of some gardeners 

 of former days it was time enough to think of 

 this when the leaves first commenced decay- 

 ing, and consequently we find them urgently 

 recommending the use of the besom pretty 

 freely in October. Brushing off the leaves to 

 assist in ripening the wood is an old practice 

 now tolerably obsolete, but, notwithstanding 

 its repudiation, it may be attended with 

 some advantages, for perhaps a broken crutch 

 is better than no crutch at all. I will not go so far as 

 to assert that sweeping oft' a few decaying leaves early in 

 autumn may not have the eflect of rendering the buds in 

 the axils of those leaves still remaining more perfect, but 

 this only proves a previous neglect ; for if light and heat 

 acting on the fully exposed surfaces of the leaves of tender 

 trees be essential to the proper organisation of the bud — 

 and who shall dispute it ? — why should an improper amount 

 of the annual spray be reserved dming the thinning or 

 disbudd-ing season only to cause mutual injury in the first 

 place, and in the second to render necessary a more trouble- 

 some course of winter pruning than there is any real need 

 for? What a controversy has been carried on in the pages 

 of horticultural periodicals about the covering or non- 

 covering of fruit trees in order to protect the blossom, and 

 to facilitate the setting of the fruit ! Some say that cover- 

 ing does not always insure a crop. I wonder how many 

 yards of canvas it would take to insure a crop of fruit on 

 a Marie Louise Pear tree, or, indeed, on any other tree, 

 the embryo buds of which had been smothered in the pre- 

 vious summer with watery spray ? 



Trees are at many places suffered to hang in a vfild 

 state from the walls until the approach of September, and 

 then, for the first time perhaps, the future blossom buds 

 have full daylight for about tliree weeks, and are allowed 

 to enjoy that degree of light which a darkening autumn 

 afibrds. Then, in the spring, a great to-do is made about 

 covering ; it is done, yet the blossoms perish, and the un- 

 happy cultivator comes forth like a lion with a fresh argu- 

 ment against the utility of covering or protection. 



What would be thought of a writer who recommended 

 Strawberry- forcers not to get their runners too soon for 

 forcing purposes, but to delay until the end of August, and 

 then to select them from gross and overcrowded plants, mth 

 leafstalks dangling a foot in length ? I wonder whether the 

 best of winter protection, or the most complete and expen- 

 sive pit ever invented, could insure a crop of Strawberries 

 on such plants '.' I think this is sutticiently illustrative to 

 all who will grapple with the real bearing of the question. 

 Those who will persist in adliering to a set of notions 

 which have no real foundation either in science or practice, 

 must still be content to endure disappointment. 



If, then, protective coverings are not to be shorn of their 

 great utility, let the extra labour and attention requisite 

 for tender fruits be bestowed in summer, instead of prac- 

 tising so much elaborate winter pruning. Both common 

 sense and economy will be found in favour of this view. 

 K*. M.-VfiL. XV., New Sssne. 



Surely a man's day's work is more productive in July than 

 in January. Let those, then, who deem it expedient to 

 follow the advice oft-repeated in this Journal carefully 

 examine all their trained trees immediately. There is still 

 time on all good aspects to obtain tolerably firm wood by a 

 careful and immediate removal of all waste spray. 



To give my observations a definite character, in which 

 shape they are chiefly useful to amateurs and young be- 

 ginners, I will point at once to some trees, with their pro- 

 bable condition. 



The Peach and Nectarine about this period, and a little 

 sooner in the case of Peach trees which have grown at 

 only a reasonable rate during the early part of summer, 

 burst forth with an improper amount of strength ; and 

 shoots which had been pinched long since on account of 

 their luxuriance, or a doubt as to the propriety of retaining 

 them, finally produce a considerable number of axillary 

 shoots, and these shoots at once arrest and appropriate 

 the ascending sap; they also cause an injurious amount of 

 shade to the true and bearing wood. All of them should be 

 pinched immediately, and it is not unlikely that they will 

 require pinching again \vithin another fortnight or three 

 weeks. The production of such spray at a late season in- 

 dicates a too-powerful action of the roots, and some persons 

 would be ready under such circumstances to advise root- 

 pruning. Now, although a strong advocate for this opera- 

 tion, and probably the first to urge it in general practice in 

 this country, yet I would by no means interfere at this 

 period with trees bearing fruit. 



In the Peach and the Nectarine, fine growing young 

 shoots frequently may be seen over the centre of the tree, 

 and, perhaps, on one particular side, wliile the extremities 

 of the limbs which are carrj'ing a crop are destitute of 

 young shoots, or have a stunted appearance. This fre- 

 quently happens from such shoots having carried a large 

 crop on their extremities the year previously : these 

 portions, therefore, being too heavily drawn upon, a tem- 

 porary exhaustion is the consequence. Now, if the ascend- 

 ing current of sap is not transmitted in sufficient abundance 

 to excite these branches to produce youug wood, a partial 

 contraction of the sap vessels will take place, and such 

 branches will have to be pruned away before long, in order 

 to give place to a progeny which Las fattened at their 

 expense. Now, lopping-otf the older Imibs of Peach and 

 Nectarine trees is a perilous practice at the best, and it is 

 well to know that by an early stopping of most of the 

 stronger young slioots below them, and stopping again if 

 necessary, such old shoots may be re-invigorated by the 

 sap thus directed towards them, and which, as before 

 observed, had been arrested in its passage. In other 

 words, they will commence making young shoots with 

 freedom, and these young shoots will encourage a renewed 

 vitality, as well as cause the fruit to be better fed, and 

 more perfect. 



As to stopping, my practice is to stop in the first week 

 in August every shoot that is of sufficient length to be 

 useful in the next year, excepting in the case of delicate 

 or weak trees. Here there is no occasion ; Nature will 

 stop Buch soon enough. An exception is also made in 



No. lose.— Vol. XL., Old Swuib. 



